Most of the crossings are maintained by CSX Transportation, which said recent changeable winter weather was at fault.

Schumer, a Democrat from Brooklyn who serves as the Senate minority leader, said lack of maintenance was a factor as well.

“These malfunctioning rail gates in the Rochester-Finger Lakes area are tragedies waiting to happen and CSX needs to do a better job — and quickly — to regularly remove the snow and ice now causing them to malfunction,” Schumer said in a news release Wednesday.

“These gates and signals are meant to protect residents, not condition motorists to disregard and drive around because it is assumed they are not functioning properly. That is why I am strongly urging CSX to immediately send more resources to the area to make sure the gates are operating as designed," he said.

A CSX spokeswoman, Katie Chimelewski, said Wednesday afternoon that CSX was reviewing Schumer's letter and would respond to his office directly.

Schumer, New York's senior senator, has raised numerous concerns over the years about rail-crossing and rail-car safety, federal funding for inspections and oversight, and other railroad matters.

In the spring of 2015, he focused attention on crossing safety here following the death of a 20-year-old man as he drove around the gates at a CSX crossing in Chili. The protective gates and flashing lights had been activated at the King Road crossing but, as cars backed up behind the gates, no train appeared.

The young man, Brandon Sauer, on his way to work, drove around the gates and was hit by an Amtrak passenger train.

In the wake of the incident, Schumer demanded action by the Federal Railroad Administration at the same time the Democrat and Chronicle was publishing a report on chronic problems at local crossings.

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He made the point then, as he is making it again this week, that such malfunctions place motorists at risk. Some of them, despite traffic laws that forbid it, drive around the protective gates if a train fails to appear.

The federal agency, which oversees CSX and the nation's other railroads, agreed to review all local crossings in the late spring of 2015. It later reported finding no major problems, though CSX did undertaken reconstruction work at the King Road crossing and several others in the area.

In his letter to CSX Wednesday, Schumer noted the newspaper had reported a dozen malfunctions of crossing equipment in the first 10 days of the year, all of them reports that gates and lights had been activated with no train in sight. Three occurred at the Scottsville Road crossing in Chili and two at South Winton Road in Henrietta.

Schumer said he had followup data from the Monroe County 911 center indicating that at least one additional malfunction had occurred at Scottsville Road since then.

The senator pointed out that two people died at the South Winton crossing in February 2004 after unknowingly driving into the path of a CSX freight train.

It emerged later that CSX had ordered the gates and lights deactivated because of repeated problems due to harsh winter weather.

"With more severe winter weather expected this season, it is critical that you immediately deploy adequate resources to maintain these crossings and prevent the ice, snow, and debris build-up that can cause the safety gates to malfunction," Schumer said in his letter. "In particular, I request you specifically investigate the signaling equipment at crossings that have repeated malfunction, including the Scottsville Road crossing and the South Winton Road crossing."

He said data that had been provided by the 911 center in recent years showed that equipment malfunctions at CSX crossings in the area "are not isolated events."